Time to show RMA housing affordability plans

Labour is challenging the Government to reveal its plans to make housing more affordable through amending the Resource Management Act, Labour’s Housing spokesperson Phil Twyford says.

“Labour remains willing to consider the proposals on housing affordability on their merits and will work constructively with the Government if they stack up.

“Nick Smith has blamed the RMA for the housing crisis. That is nuts. It is yet another attempt to scapegoat others for the failure of National’s housing policy. Under National, Auckland building rates are 40 per cent less than they were under Labour in 2004 – under the very same RMA.

“Today's underwhelming consent data shows building rates are persistently falling far below what Auckland needs just to keep up with population growth.

“Labour’s view is a National Policy Statement under the RMA on affordable housing is the best way to change how Councils administer the Act.

“But if the Government has other ideas on RMA reform that will ease the housing crisis, we are all ears.

“If the Government is not willing to put its cards on the table, then we can only conclude that all the talk of housing affordability was just a way of dressing up its deeply unpopular attempt to gut the RMA’s environmental principles,” Phil Twyford says.